There are very few things in this world I consider purely evil. They include: pineapple on pizza, George W. Bush, and lunch debt. While one is a culinary crime against humanity and the other committed actual crimes against humanity, the last item on this list operates on a greater level of cruelty. 

Roughly 1.5 million students in the US can’t afford their school lunches. Many fall into “lunch debt,” and are refused meals as a result. In a city in which 1 in 10 people are food insecure, ⅓ of them being children, the decision to start recharging $3.00 a meal not only exacerbates existing inequalities, but it removes the guarantee that hundreds of students won’t go home hungry at Jackson-Reed. A policy that didn’t even make sense before the pandemic has no place in schools trying to still recover from the damage COVID-19 has caused to educational environments.

During the pandemic, any public school student could eat a school meal for free. Regulatory waivers as well as federal subsidies allowed for schools to be reimbursed for the meals given to their students. However, this year that rule no longer applies, meaning school districts are back to charging children for lunches. Forcing students to pay for their meals somewhere they are legally required to be is inherently exploitative.

The benefits of school lunch are well known and obvious. Research shows that free school lunches are critical for reducing food insecurity and poor health, particularly among low income students. These benefits carry on into the school day: a full stomach ensures productivity in the classroom and directly combats the anxiety of not knowing when your next meal will be. Taking away that guarantee will undo all the work done over the last two years to combat food insecurity in DC schools. Considering that students are forced to remain in the school building for 7-8 hours a day—even longer if they are a student athlete—having a stable source of nutrition regardless of your financial situation is necessary to achieve the basic social and emotional learning goals that our new principal is so adamant about.

DC families now have to apply online in order for their children to receive free lunch, however, this still poses many problems. Families who don’t know they need to submit an application, get their application in late, or are hesitant to submit their forms will see lapses in meal coverage for their children. This decline in the accessibility of school lunches is simply unacceptable. 

DCPS can do a lot to prevent food insecurity in schools. Thanks to the American Recovery Plan, DCPS got $195 million in a third round Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding for Fiscal Years 2022 and onwards. On the DCPS budget website, only $185 million has been directed towards specific areas such as “School Budget Support”, “COVID Recovery To-Date”, and “Evolving COVID Response.” That still leaves $10 million (as well as any surpluses from ESSER I and II) that could be used to cover the cost of school lunches. At the school level, Jackson-Reed should forgive all lunch debt accrued by students who simply needed to eat. 

Hawaiian pizza and George Bush are certainly on my list of greatest threats to children, and school districts like DCPS are going to join them if they continue to lose basic empathy and human decency over nonsense policies that harm the well being of children. •